Samuel Dalembert Traded to Sacramento Kings Kings

Samuel Dalembert was not too happy with his role with the Philadelphia 76ers last season. The truth of the matter was that the team’s front court was in disarray and couldn’t manage to muster any consistent synergy throughout the 2009-2010 season.

Regardless of Dalembert’s personal sentiments regarding his situation, the move for Philly’s front office was clear (relatively). Things needed to shaken up. After eight seasons with the Sixers, Samuel is now moving on. He was recently traded to the Sacramento Kings for both Spencer Hawes and Andres Nocioni.

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The trade makes sense for both teams. Sacramento’s front court was suffering from lackluster performances from their “young bigs” for most of the season as well. Hawes, in particular, came up as huge fantasy disappointment as he appeared to take two steps back in his development. He finished 149th in GMTR’s player rater. That’s a rather far cry from where experts (well at least me) predicted he would perform last season.

Dalembert, who the Kings need to man things in the middle, will probably do slightly better than he did when he had to compete for time on the floor with both Elton Brand and Thaddeus Young. I do not, however, visualize him surpassing his last season’s 81st rank on our player rater by a large margin. He should end up being a serviceable back-up center for most fantasy teams. Somewhere to the tune of nine boards and a hair shy of two blocks a night should be fine and dandy for a seventh round fantasy draft pick. Just don’t expect him to do a lot of scoring nor to have a big impact on your team’s bottom line in the FG% category. What you can expect is more stability as far as his minutes are concerned. Jason Thompson and Carl Landry can share time at the four in most games, but should eat up some of Dalembert’s playing time if the Kings opt to play some small ball.

Hawes, who is does not fit your stereotypical big man archetype, might just be able to play alongside Elton Brand and actually coexist on the floor. After his poor showing last season, I expect Hawes to be available late in most drafts. Newly hired coach, Doug Collins, might be able to get Brand to mentor Hawes. It should be safer to play it more on a wait-and-see type of outlook when it comes to Hawes. Add a healthy Marresse Speights into the mix and Spencer might just ended up fading into the shadow of fantasy obscurity. A generous outlook for him next season would be to see him bring a 14-point, 7.5-rebound nightly average.

Nocioni, on the other hand, will probably go undrafted in most fantasy leagues. He will play sparing minutes behind Brand and Young. Let’s not forget that he also does have to contend with Speights for minutes at the four and potentially with rookie, Turner (if picked) for time at the three. Andres will get some quality minutes every now and then due to his being a “grizzled vet,” but then again isn’t that the role Brand’s supposed to play? Unfortunately for Nocioni, he might just find himself lost in the shuffle, as far as his fantasy value is concerned. His departure opens a window for Francisco Garcia, who was sidelined for most of last season with a broken wrist, to make a comeback. At this point, it’s too early to tell.

We’ll likely be revisiting both these teams after the NBA draft and after July first. I fully expect the Kings to make a few moves (not major ones) in the free agent market this season.